Teachers and other school staff around the province are getting layoff notices this week, and more can be expected as districts wrestle with at least $56 million in budget cuts.

The Coquitlam school district issued layoff notices to 630 teachers on Thursday, as it faces a $13.4-million budget shortfall.

“This is a really bad day for teachers in Coquitlam and we place the blame squarely on the shoulders of the provincial government,” Coquitlam Teachers Association president Charley King said. “As long as the provincial government has boards that are willing to implement their cuts and a public that is willing to tolerate it, they’ll get away with it. But I’m starting to see the tide turning and I’m starting to see parents getting upset, and that’s what we need.”

The district’s now-balanced budget calls for a reduction of 91 full-time teaching positions, but it is necessary to lay off many more teachers because of a complicated system of posting and filling positions. Teachers with the least number of years of service are given notice first, and then teachers are recalled in September in order of seniority and qualifications.

King said layoffs have happened every year since 2002, but that this year and last year have been far worse.

“Last year, with 483 layoffs, we thought that was pretty extreme,” King said. “This year is absolutely unbelievable. People knew it was going to be severe, but they didn’t know how severe.”

Many of the laid-off teachers will be hired back, but the process is long and complicated — this year it was a “year-long” undertaking, King said.

“It will be a very, very tense summer for teachers. There will be an awful lot of waiting, nervousness and angst, and that’s going to continue well into the school year,” King said.

“On a day like this it’s really, really sad to see all of that talent and all of that effort being laid off.”

The provincial education budget was not increased this year, but districts have to find ways to pay for support staff wage increases, Medical Services Plan premium increases and rising BC Hydro costs, as well as other inflationary pressures.

Coquitlam is the third-largest district in the province, with a $270-million budget, about 31,000 students and 1,785 full-time teachers.

“With this layoff, it’s well over one-third of our contracted teaching force, and well over one-quarter of our total numbers,” King said. He said layoff notices were issued to teachers with as much as eight years of seniority. Last year, the district was also grappling with a budget shortfall and sent out 483 layoff notices to cover 78.6 eliminated positions.

“Of those that get called back, a lot were under-employed, and the majority were called back into temporary work,” King said. “We had a number of teachers who were underemployed this year and some that weren’t recalled to full work. I’m really, really worried that that problem is going to get worse next year. When you’re looking at a cut of 90 (full-time equivalent positions), you’re actually looking at a lot more individuals that are going to be affected by that.”

Meanwhile, in Vancouver, 67 employees working in adult education were laid off, so the district could make up a $12-million shortfall. The district expects to rehire some of the teachers in the fall, depending on enrolment, said Kurt Heinrich, public relations manager at the Vancouver school board. Last year, the district hired back about half of the adult education teachers who were laid off before the summer, Heinrich said.

In the kindergarten-to-Grade 12 system, Vancouver has not issued any layoff notices to teachers this year, but there will be layoffs of support staff, Heinrich said. Some teachers will be moved around because enrolment is declining in high schools, but increasing in elementary schools.

“Because layoffs are done by seniority, district-wide, elementary teachers would have been affected when there was no reason for them to be displaced,” Heinrich said. “This year, the positions that would be affected by the declining enrolment will become surplus positions. This means that the individuals affected will no longer have their position at their school, but will be given an assignment in the district for which they are qualified.”

Heinrich said that of the 193 teachers laid off in 2010-11, 76 per cent were hired back, and of the 337 teachers laid off in 2009-10, 89 per cent were hired back.

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Hundreds of teachers across B.C. receiving layoff notices

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